Paula Naugle is a STAR member of the Discovery Educator Network

Archive for December, 2009

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the LaCUE Conference in Baton Rouge. I attended for the first time last year and vowed then that I would present a session at the next one. Well, I manage to keep that vow. My presentation was about building a personal learning network (PLN) and was titled “Communicate, Collaborate, Contribute”. I asked a member of my own PLN, Alexis Western to be my co-presenter. Alexis is a Technology Integration Specialist (TIS) in Jefferson Parish Public School System where I work. She gladly accepted my invitation.

Well after many hours of putting together our presentation we were ready. Alexis was great about letting me take the lead because she said this was about how I built my PLN and she was there more as a facilitator. In the last eight months I have built an incredible PLN and I showed the attendees how that was accomplished. Then Alexis and I walked them through the steps to start their own journey. We helped them set up Google accounts, Google Reader, a Ning identity and had them join the LaCUE Ning, Delicious, Skype, and Discovery Education. I told them how I became a STAR Discovery Educator and a member of the Louisiana Leadership Council. Hopefully they will stay the course and become STARs too. It felt great to be a presenter, and I plan to do it as often as I can.

Beside presenting, I attended the “Dining with the STARs” dinner hosted by Susan Tompkins, Louisiana Leadership Council (LALC) Chair. At the dinner I was able to meet the other members of the LALC – Cindy Wallace, Events Coordinator, and Susan Gauthier, Blog Team Leader. They graciously welcomed this newbie into the fold. Now when we communicate on our monthly online meetings I will have a face to put with their names. I continued to grow my PLN by meeting the other Louisiana STARs who attended the dinner.